A common concern during a divorce is the possibility that a spouse is hiding assets. Yourdivorce attorneywill assist in determining if this is taking place. Essentially, your lawyer will tally up the assets (counting the spouse's income), subtract the expenditures and use the total to see if there is the potential that assets are being hidden.

Determining Actual Assets

When counting up the assets, your attorney will first establish that there actually is an asset. In other words, if the asset is going to be hidden, it must first come into existence. A hypothetical example is if the husband wins $25,000 in the lottery and this is reported in a newspaper. This will show there is evidence of the asset due to the lottery win.

Next, the equation shows that for an asset to be hidden, the individual who possesses the asset didn't spend it. Using the same lottery example, imagine that the attorney examines the couple's banking records during the discovery phase and doesn't see that $25,000 deposited into their account. It is known to exist and that it wasn't spent. In short, the husband won the $25,000, but it is nowhere to be found.

Accumulated Assets

In the situation where the couple has accumulated income or earned assets, a couple's income will be counted, how much they spend will be counted, and the difference between the two will either confirm or deny whether assets have been hidden.

The example above is relatively straightforward. In other instances, the determining of assets can be far more complicated with multiple streams of income. If there is evidence of something amiss, your attorney will use pursue a more in-depth investigation. The formula can be utilized to indicate that there should be further investigation or it can show that it is unlikely that there are hidden assets. The formula might also be used by itself. The lottery example would mean that there is enough proof to say that the husband should surrender $25,000 when the couple's assets are divided because the asset is shown to exist without having been spent. Due to that, the husband is believed to still have it.